Streaming, where media are consumed in real time as opposed to being downloaded, is seen as being the next major development in online media. YouTube videos, for example, are streamed rather than being downloaded to the viewer's own computer.

The trend, now popular in the US, is being held back by the tendency of European internet service providers (ISPs) to impose data limits on internet customers. Whereas a downloaded film might take up 750Mb of a customer's data allocation, a streamed film would take up as much or more, but cannot be saved for later viewing, or for viewing again.

The growth of streaming is welcomed by the industries representing content providers, including film producers, composer and games developers, as a way of replacing downloads, often illegal, which allow users to share media by means of bit-torrents, so that one purchaser of a DVD, for example, can then share it with hundreds if not thousands of people who receive the entire production for free. "With the development of its forthcoming entertainment platform, Belgacom is moving into a new phase, providing more content on more platforms," the company said in a statement.

Meanwhile the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), the group representing the industry, issued figures showing that Belgian consumers spent more than €20 million last year on entertainment products, including music, films and games. The earnings from sales were down 3.9% compared with the same period in 2009.

However music sales were up 20%, the single positive note in the results, largely due to the iTunes platform, which allows the download of single songs from an album. Even though music can also be obtained by torrent, it seems that consumers like to be able to pick and choose. And iTunes is instant, whereas torrents involve a delay of days or weeks before a CD is made available - and someone always has to buy it in the first place in order to share.

Content providers have recently approached the government to take measures to stop ISPs from making it so easy for people to download their content illegally. However the popularity of streaming, which is already current in the US, will only increase if data limits here are increased sufficiently, or removed entirely as is the case in the US.